Exposure to blue LED light before the onset of darkness under a long-day photoperiod alters melatonin secretion, feeding behaviour and growth in female dairy calves.

The effect of blue LED on melatonin secretion, feeding behaviour and growth was addressed in Holstein female dairy calves. In Exp.1, six animals (8 weeks old, 97 ± 4.1 kg BW) were exposed to yellow or blue LED for 2 hr before darkness over 7 days under a long-day photoperiod (LDPP). In Exp. 2, six animals (8 weeks old, 88.5 ± 4.8 kg BW) were exposed to blue light from a white LED all daytime or a yellow LED for 2 hr before the darkness of LDPP (blue light cut) over 3 weeks. In Exp. 1, blue light mildly suppressed melatonin secretion during the 2-hr treatment but did not affect the timing of the nightly melatonin rise. However, the rise in nighty melatonin levels was higher with yellow than blue LED. In Exp. 2, white LED completely suppressed melatonin secretion during the 2-hr treatment, but plasma melatonin concentrations were similar during the darkness. Grass hay intake, rumination time, frequency of water intake and body weight gain were higher in animals exposed to the yellow rather than the white LED. Overall results indicate that exposure to blue light from white LEDs under an LDPP suppresses melatonin secretion and might negatively impact the development of female dairy calves.

Development of new-type rapid analysis technology of polychlorinated biphenyls by using liquid chromatographic clean-up material (polyvinyl alcohol gel).

We developed a new-type rapid polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) analysis technology on the basis of a liquid chromatographic clean-up system combined with a large-volume injection GC-LRMS. Among 18 kinds of materials such as polymer gels, normal-phase silica gels, reversed-phase silica gels, carbon material and ion-exchange material, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gel and poly (hydroxylmethacrylate) gel were found to give rather good separation performance for insulating oil. Especially, PVA gel was confirmed to be the most suitable for rapid PCB analysis because of its least required quantity of fraction liquid as well as the highest resolution. Then, we confirmed elution characteristics of all PCB isomers and removal efficiency of insulating oil on PVA gel under an optimized condition, and established high-performance clean-up system using a combination of octadecyl silica gel (ODS), porous graphite carbon (PGC) and PVA gel. In this system, we applied newly valve-switching method that could remove other impurities. In addition, it was demonstrated that the proposed clean-up system could become highly sensitive and rapid PCB analysis technology with 2-h analysis time, lower measurement limit of less than 0.05 mg/kg, and a variation coefficient of less than 5%, by coupling with a large-volume injection type GC-LRMS. Thus, we can conclude that this rapid PCB analysis technology has not only good correlativity (R2>0.999) with standard analysis method but also high durability and can be fully applied to actual PCB-treatment plants.

Determination of estrogens and their conjugates in water using solid-phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

An analytical procedure for the determination of steroid estrogens and their conjugates was developed and applied to aqueous environmental samples. The analytes of 15 compounds were solid-phase extracted and fractionated into two fractions: one containing unconjugated (free) steroids and the other containing conjugates (sulfates and glucuronides). Identification and quantification were carried out using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. The recoveries for each compound ranged from 57 to 116% and reproducibilities represented as RSD ranged from 2.9 to 17%. Some of the sulfates and free compounds were detected in environmental samples, whereas most of the conjugates were below the detection limits.

Invasive ductal carcinoma associated with tubular adenoma of the breast.

We report an extremely rare case of the colocalization of a tubular adenoma and an invasive ductal carcinoma occurring in a 55-year-old woman. Following radiographical evaluation, fine-needle aspiration cytology of the left breast tumor was undertaken. Because cytological examination revealed malignancy, a partial mastectomy was performed. Histologically, the tumor (measuring 1.7 x 1.3 cm) comprised two distinct parts: tubular adenoma and invasive ductal carcinoma. The invasive ductal carcinoma showed a solid pattern, high nuclear and structural atypia and frequent mitotic figures, while the tubular adenoma consisted of a proliferation of small ducts lined by single layers of epithelial and myoepithelial cells with bland nuclei and inconspicuous nucleoli. The histological boundary was clearly defined between the tubular adenoma and the invasive ductal carcinoma, and between the tubular adenoma and the surrounding breast tissue. The current case might be a collision between separate tubular adenoma and invasive ductal carcinoma, but the malignant transformation of a tubular adenoma cannot be ruled out. Both the long-term observation of this case and analysis of more cases may enable us to determine the histological characteristics and clinical significance of invasive ductal carcinoma associated with tubular adenoma.